Wisconsin Doctors on Committee to Protect Health Care Media Call on AG's Abortion Lawsuit

Tuesday, January 24th, 2023 -- 1:00 PM

(Bob Hague, WRN) -Wisconsin doctors who want the state Supreme Court to rule in favor of the attorney general’s lawsuit to overturn Wisconsin’s abortion ban held a media call on Monday.

Dr. Kristin Lyerly, an OB/GYN from Green Bay, is a plaintiff in the lawsuit. She talked about the fear of being criminally charged under the 1849 law. “And that's the thing that I fear working in Brown County. It doesn't matter. It could be entirely politically motivated. It could be me managing a miscarriage, and I could be accused of performing an abortion.”

“I don't think that I can offer comprehensive, thoughtful, sensitive care in Wisconsin right now. So . . . I'm a general OBGYN in Minnesota. And I look forward to the time when I can come back and take care of my fellow Wisconsinites.”

Lyerly is a member of the Committee to Protect Health Care’s Reproductive Rights Task Force. and is currently working in Minnesota. She was joined in a media call on Monday by doctors from Milwaukee county and southern Wisconsin.

Dr. Ann Helms, a Milwaukee critical care neurologist and state lead for the Committee to Protect Health Care, talked of the risks to patients traveling to out of state clinics for abortion services.

“So they're going through medical transport hundreds if not more miles away from home, in a medically unstable state to get care in an optimal setting to protect them and their doctors from prosecution. This is not a benign thing.”

Helms was joined on the call by doctors from Brown County and southern Wisconsin. Dr. Jill Cousino is an OB/GYN in southern Wisconsin speaking on her own behalf. She talked about the risks to patients traveling out of state to access abortion services.

“The delay to get to care out of state increases the risk, right? Because that can't happen as quickly as it would if you were having it locally. And so the days and even sometimes weeks that we see that women's care is delayed, then increases the risk of the procedure as well as the time and cost for them.”

Cousino was joined on the call by Dr. Ann Helms from Milwaukee and Dr. Kristin Lyerly from Green Bay. Both are members of the Committee to Protect Health Care. Lyerly is also a plaintiff in the lawsuit brought by Attorney General Josh Kaul.   

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